PSU hires James Franklin, a 'Pennsylvania boy with a Penn State heart'

James Franklin poses with his daughters Addison and Ava after he was introduced as Penn State football coach Saturday in State College. Franklin, formerly the head coach at Vanderbilt University, said he's taking his dream job. "I'm a Pennsylvania boy with a Penn State heart, and so excited to be here," Franklin said. (Joe Hermitt — PennLive.com)

STATE COLLEGE >> He's known as one of the best motivators and most energetic men in college football.

But James Franklin outdid even himself on Saturday.

The day for the new Penn State head coach began in Nashville, where he held an emotional, early-morning exit meeting with the team he had been leading, the one he stunningly built into a winner in the all-powerful SEC.

Then came a plane ride to State College. Then came a quick meet-and-greet with fans hanging at the airport.

Then came a late-afternoon meeting with about 100 media members inside Beaver Stadium while wearing a navy blue blazer, a light blue shirt and a blue-striped tie.

He was smooth and restrained in answering questions as the Nittany Lions' 16th head coach, its first African-American football leader.

But the energy still spiked through at times. He punctuated a few sentences with, "We Are ...," but not too many.

He said he wouldn't turn down any speaking engagement.

He said he'd even blow up balloons at kids' birthday parties, if needed.

He guaranteed that Beaver Stadium would be filled each game at capacity, more than 107,000.

And without hesitation, he proclaimed, "We are going to dominate the state (in recruiting). We are going to dominate the state. We are going to dominate the region."

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There was that energy again, trying to find its way out.

"We're going to wake up every single morning, do a back handspring out of bed, excited about the opportunity to represent this great institution," he said.

But why Franklin and why Penn State now?

Of course, he's already known as arguably the hottest up-and-coming football coach in the nation. But Penn State athletic director Dave Joyner also said his lifelong ties to Pennsylvania were critical, too. Franklin grew up in the Philadelphia suburb of Langhorne and played his college ball at East Stroudsburg. He began coaching at Kutztown, another Division II school in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference.

Even his Vanderbilt staff was mostly made up of assistants with ties to the state or to Maryland.

"I'm excited to come home. That is probably the thing that I take the most pride in is coming home," he said, at the beginning of two sessions speaking with reporters. "I'm a Pennsylvania boy with a Penn State heart, and so excited to be here."

Later, he called it, the "best day of my life." He then quickly glanced at his wife and two daughters and smiled.

"Third best day."

Franklin, who will turn 42 in three weeks, is on an amazing run. Although he's been a head coach for only three years, he landed the second-richest salary in the Big Ten, at an average of $4.25 million per year over six years, behind only Ohio State's Urban Meyer. That's about $700,000 more than Bill O'Brien made last year before bolting to the Houston Texans on New Year's Eve.

Plus, early on, his buyout clause is pretty hefty, at $5 million in both his first and second seasons before being cut in half in 2016.

Former Vanderbilt head coach James Franklin, center, reacts during an August game. Penn State introduced Franklin as its next head coach on Saturday in State College. Franklin, 41, led Vanderbilt to bowls in all three of his seasons there. (The Associated Press — File)

His roots in the state also are a big reason why he said he wants to stay to build a national title contender. Penn State officials also, though, probably had to perform more than their typical due diligence with Franklin before offering him the job. That's because he threw four of his players off the team last summer after they were charged with raping a co-ed. While the district attorney in Nashville said Franklin has been cooperative and repeatedly cleared in any wrongdoing, it was a tricky situation for Penn State.

The Jerry Sandusky scandal continues to be investigated, and it fragments university supporters two years later.

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Joyner called it "maybe the most thorough vetting process of any search perhaps of any position at this university. ... It couldn't have been a more thorough vetting process with our committee, which is an extremely diverse committee, as you know, and with people that ask hard questions and got honest and true answers.

"So my belief, without a doubt, is that James Franklin is a man of extremely high character."

Franklin spent much of his time Saturday talking about growing up and his ties to the state. He mostly was raised by his late mother, one of whose jobs was to the clean the high school. (He teared up briefly when mentioning her, the most emotional he got during the entire news conference.)

He came to Penn State's summer football camp as a high school junior and ended up creating many football relationships in the state from his days recruiting the area for the Maryland Terrapins.

His first coach job at Kutztown lasted six months, where his salary was only $1,200. Part of his responsibilities were filling up soda machines up in the morning. He lived in a friend's basement.

And that is where he "caught the bug of coaching.

Now, more than 15 years later, he had a chance to come home and win bigger than he ever could at Vanderbilt, which plays in even a tougher league with even tougher academic restrictions.

"We're coming here with the mindset that we're going to build this program. We're going to build it the right way, and we're going to build it for the long haul. We plan on being here for a very, very long time. This is my dream job. This is where I want to be.

"I think with everybody pulling the rope in the same direction, there is no reason why we can't take this program where everybody wants it to be."

In between speaking sessions, he walked his two young daughters, Ava and Addison, out to an empty and mostly darkened Beaver Stadium to pose for snapshots and let them ring the victory bell.

But his night was only getting started.

He needs to form a coaching staff quickly and said he would talk about that deep into the night, wake a couple of hours later and hope to interview current Penn State assistant holdovers, Larry Johnson, Mac McWhorter and John Strollo, if they are interested in staying.

He must also talk in-depth with incoming recruits, who are preparing to make their commitments binding. He must talk to all of the new players, his "95 new sons."

He didn't look weary or a bit worried.

He talked confidently and smoothly but a bit restrained. The true energy he's famous for would come another time soon enough.

He still has 278 text messages stacked up on his phone just since this morning, surely one long line of congratulations.

And one welcoming email from Sue Paterno.

"I don't know if I've mentioned this before," he said, a smile forming, "but we're going to dominate the state (in recruiting). That is the first thing that we're going to do."

James Franklin speaks after being introduced as Penn State's 16th head football coach Saturday in State College. The former Vanderbilt coach replaces Bill O'Brien, who left Penn State after two seasons to become head coach of the Houston Texans. (John Beale — The Associated Press)